(A/N: Oh, man. I haven't updated this in like seven months! That's a long time and I apologize.
This is the chapter where Mystery Inc. and Kevin's team will get started on the investigation as well as the search. I won't say anything more because I'm going to jeopardize the contents of this chapter. That's all I have to say for now.)
0~V-V-X-V-V~0
June 5 Traverse City, Michigan - 12:00 PM
Three days after the deal was made with Marty, Kevin and his team, the gang was on their way back to Mari Vineyards to speak to them again. Shaggy and Scooby weren't happy with the deal, but were tagging along anyway because they wanted to take a look around town for a restaurant or two to eat at.
As soon as they arrived, they got out of the Mystery Machine and went up to the building. They went inside and saw Luke wiping down the counter at his area for the afternoon rush, even though there was no one there yet.
"Marty's upstairs," he told them, pointing at the staircase. "First door on the right."
"Thanks," Freddie replied. He nodded and continued cleaning the counter.
As they made their way to the stairs, Shaggy and Scooby caught sight of a tray sitting on a coffee table. A tray full of food to be specific. They licked their lips in unison.
"You guys go ahead, we'll stay here and keep the snacks- I mean, Luke company," Shaggy told them.
They just left them be and went upstairs. Knowing them they'll probably eat the whole pantry before any real guests arrive, if at all, business seems to be very slow, just like how it was when they were there a couple days ago.
They got to the top of the stairs on the second floor and went to the first door on the right. Freddie knocked on the door and got a "come in" as a reply.
They walked in and saw Marty sitting at his desk. There was a long conference table in the room with several chairs.
He stood up and greeted them, "You made it, welcome to my office."
He and Freddie shook hands, "Thanks for letting us in on this."
"No problem," he replied. He gestured to the conference table, "Have a seat." They did so and he sat down with them.
"Where are Kevin and his team?" Daphne asked.
"Right here," Kevin answered as he and his team came into the room with what they still had. "Sorry we're late."
"You're not," Marty replied.
"Yeah, we just got here," Velma added.
She took out her laptop and started typing on it. In the past three days, she's spent her time investigating who Jillian was talking to during the time before she ransacked the evidence and also who she really was.
"After we left a few days ago, I decided to do some research into Jillian just to see who she is and what I found surprised even me," she spoke.
"What did you find?" Marty asked.
"I discovered that 'Jillian' isn't even her real name. Her real name is Dana O'Brien and she has a long wrap sheet with the Atlanta PD. All of her crimes involve fraud, forgery, and she was a suspect in a bank robbery where a security officer was shot along with the bank president," she explained.
Marty was understandably a little agitated at this new information, "I never found that when I did a background check on her."
"Obviously she has some friends in high places," Brad commented.
"Or a dirty cop," Jeff remarked.
"So, what does this have to do with all of the attacks out on the lake?" Kevin asked.
"At the moment, nothing yet, but there's something interesting I was able to dig up in her phone records," she claimed.
"What's that?" Marty questioned.
"Most of the calls she received in the days and hours before she took your evidence came from a disposable cell phone in Allegan," she proclaimed.
"Weren't we in Allegan a few days ago?" Freddie asked.
"Yeah, that's where we first heard of your vineyard, Mr. Lagina," Daphne told him.
"Now, because they were made on a burner phone, I couldn't pinpoint where they came from exactly," she informed them.
"These people have experience, they're not going to be easy to catch," Al uttered.
"But what could all of this have to do with the ghost or the lake monster?" Freddie questioned.
"I have a hunch, do you have a map of the lake?" she asked Kevin.
"As a matter of fact, I do," he replied as he started digging through a suitcase. He eventually found one and handed it to her, "Here."
"Thank you." She spread it out over the table and used her laptop and her notebook to weigh it down.
She used a sharpie to circle the documented areas of where the supernatural attacks took place. She then wrote down the dates when they happened.
"Do you know what days she had off?" she asked Marty.
"Of course, she had Tuesdays, Thursdays, and weekends off," he answered.
She looked over the dates and looked at the calendar on her laptop, "If these dates are right, roughly eighty percent of these instances took place on days that she had off."
"That's still circumstantial evidence at best," Marty stated pointedly.
"Right," she agreed, "but if she has some kind of involvement, we should try to figure out what's in this area."
Kevin stood up from his chair and looked over the circled areas, "These are all areas we searched for the stolen gold that we believe is at the bottom of the lake."
His brother got up from his chair as well and looked at it, "Yeah, I remember this area," he tapped on an circled area that was a couple miles into the water, "that's where you dislocated your hip."
Daphne winced, "I still can't comprehend how much that must've hurt."
He nodded with a smile, "That, it did."
"So, what are you thinking, Kevin? What's your plan of attack?" Marty asked.
"Well, I definitely want to go back to the lake for another search," he replied.
He nodded, "Of course."
"But I also want to investigate the telegram we received a while ago to see if it's accurate," he added.
"Okay, well, I think that because of everything that's going on out on the lake, you should probably follow up on the telegram and see if it's authentic or a wild goose chase," he told him, mildly joking.
"Why don't we divide and conquer?" Freddie suggested. "One team will follow up on that lead, the other will investigate the lake."
Marty didn't seem comfortable with that, "I don't know, whoever these people are, they're not afraid to use force. I have a feeling they will do whatever it takes to get rid of anyone who gets in the way."
"These people might have a strategic plan, but we have one thing they don't," Kevin started. He opened another suitcase and took out a piece of paper, "We have a permit to search the lake and to recover anything we find."
"That's definitely something that will be a great advantage for us," Velma smiled.
"It's settled then, we'll split up and investigate," Freddie optimistically stated.
"Just be careful, okay? And good luck, you're going to need it," Marty uttered.
Once the meeting was over, everyone with the exception of Marty left the room and went back downstairs. They saw that the only ones down there were still just Shaggy, Scooby, and Luke, no one else.
Shaggy and Scooby were sitting on the sofa in the lobby playing a game on Shaggy's iPad. Not surprisingly, the food platter was completely clean.
Luke was still behind the counter, the rag he was using earlier was slung over his shoulder. He was looking at his phone.
"Nobody else ever came in?" Freddie asked.
He looked up from his phone, "No, it's been really slow lately. Normally, we get really busy in the afternoon."
"That's weird, do you know why?" Daphne asked.
He shook his head, "No, all I do know is that all of my coworkers seemed to have left. It's just me, Marty, Alex, and a couple of groundskeepers. Wish I knew where everyone was though, it's been really quiet around here."
Shaggy and Scooby didn't seem to notice they were even there because they were too busy with the game. They didn't even bother to look up when their friends tried to get their attention.
Freddie nudged Shaggy's shoulder, "Uh, Shag? Scoob?"
He waved him away and his eyes never moved from the game, "Like, not now Freddie, Scoob and I are in the middle of a game that will decide who gets the last box of Scooby Snacks in the van."
"Tell you what, I'll buy both of each a brand new box of Scooby Snacks if you two agree to stop your game and listen," Velma offered.
They looked up from the game and shared glances with each other. Scooby whispered in his ear and they shook hands.
He rested his arm on the top of the couch, "Make it two boxes each and you've got yourselves a deal."
She rolled her eyes, "Oh, alright, two boxes each."
He nodded, "Pleasure doing business. Now, what's going on?"
"We're going to be splitting up into teams and divide and conquer this mystery," Freddie explained.
"Okay, so, like, where's everyone going?" he asked, his voice a little shaky.
"One team is going to stay here and investigate the lake, the other team will follow up on lead out of state," he responded.
"Uh, okay, which one is safer?" he questioned nervously.
"On the lake, we'll be investigating the areas where people were attacked and the out of state team will be looking into a telegram that was sent a little while ago," Velma explained.
He and his best friend looked at each other again and nodded, "Okay, we'll go with the out of state team."
"That means you'll be with Fred, Jeff, and Brad in Utah," Kevin told them.
"Utah?" he repeated. "Like, that's where the best Midwestern barbeque comes from."
Scooby licked his lips, "Rarbeque. Rum, rum."
"Right, Scoob, like, count us in!" he exclaimed.
Freddie shook his head, amused, "Real history lovers."
"That settles it, the rest of us will stay here and check out the lake," Velma declared.
"That sounds like a plan," Fred commented.
"Yep," Al agreed, "I can't wait to finally get to the bottom of this mystery."
His brother smiled, "Me either. I'm ready to finally put this mystery to rest."
Unbeknownst to everyone in that room, there was someone else listening in on their activities. A bug had been implanted in that room in a location where no one would think to look and it could even pick up a whisper from afar.
Location: Unknown
In a dark room illuminated by only a computer, a figure sat and listened to them as they discussed what their plans were and where they would happen. While they discussed theirs, they were planning theirs.
They listened long enough to hear where the two groups will be going, then took that information and sent it to others. Everything was set in place.
"Tomorrow will be the day that we will eliminate the problem," a woman's voice declared.
The computer was shut off and a door opened, filling the room with a soft yellow light, and closed. Then, a window opened and a breeze blew into the room.
Along with the gentle wind was a person dressed in dark clothes and wearing gloves. They went over to the computer and took out a thumb drive from inside their glove and placed it into the desktop computer. They took the information the woman gathered and downloaded it into the thumb drive.
They kept continuously looking at the door and keeping their hearing sharp as the information was being downloaded. If she comes back, this whole operation will be blown out of the water.
Fortunately, the higher power up there was on their side. The computer was finished transferring the information. They grabbed the thumb drive and quickly left and made it look like they were never there.
As they made their escape, the only thing on their mind was, 'Mission accomplished.'
0~V-V-X-V-V~0
(A/N: I'm sorry if this is kind of short, but it's been a little while since I've written for this story, so I'm probably a little bit rusty. Again, I apologize that I haven't updated this story in a long time.
During the time I wasn't writing for this story, I've written and published so many new stories and I really have a feeling that some of them will really get some of you guys hooked. Go ahead and check them out if you want.)